Our DPS Weekly: Thank You for Not Standing Still

Dear DPS Community,

The Montbello Campus in Far Northeast Denver is the thriving center of a growing community. And it’s a campus that needs investment and improvement to continue to serve our community well. Thanks to the voters of our city, it will be getting just that.

We were out at the Montbello campus on Tuesday to celebrate an $8 million investment that was part of the bond initiative that voters approved by a 2-to-1 margin last month. (We even did a “Mannequin Challenge” with the students and our facilities staff as part of the celebration.)

The overhaul of Montbello’s heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting systems is our first major project under the 2016 bond, and we are determined to move quickly to utilize the voter-approved dollars to improve our students’ learning environments. Improvements to and renovations of our schools’ classrooms — especially in those buildings built in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s — are at the heart of the 2016 bond. We know how important these classroom and school building improvements are to our neighborhoods across Denver. As one student humorously stated during our Mannequin Challenge, “thank you for not standing still” and moving these improvements forward for our students.

The Montbello campus project is an important kick-off to the 2016 bond work. Improving the physical building at Montbello will also give further momentum to the academic improvements we have seen there over the past six years since the closure of the Montebello High School program. During that time, we have seen a doubling of high school graduates in the area and a dramatic increase in enrollment as well, as parents see the academic improvements. 

An important part of our entire bond-approved construction is ensuring we’re hiring contractors and businesses that are reflective of our community. That means making it a priority to include a significant number of minority- and women-owned firms in the work of improving our schools. On Wednesday, the new head of our Minority- and Women-Owned Businesses Outreach program, Murugan Palani, held a community meeting to give an update on the progress of this effort.

“DPS is working diligently to provide greater opportunities to diverse construction vendors, and our community event this week was an opportunity for us to give an update on our progress and strengthen those relationships,” said Palani.

We want our schools in every part of the city to be community centers — with world-class learning environments for our students and inviting, first-rate facilities for our families. Thank you again for investing that work. 

Best,
Tom

Read the full version of Our DPS Weekly: Thank You for Not Standing Still